1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to inflatable toys, and more specifically to an inflatable toy formed of two different types of construction to provide a novel apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Inflatable objects in general are of course well known.
The art has developed two different constructions for inflatable objects: (1) the to-to-bottom weld and (2) the I-beam weld.
These constructions provide, respectively, bulbous items and flat or non-bulbous items.
In top-to-bottom welding, the peripheral edges of two flexible materials of the type suitable for use in inflatable construction are brought together and welded together by a process sometimes called heat welding. In this type of "welding", the edges of the respective pieces of materials are momentarily melted while held in pressed relation to one another so that a merger of materials can occur while the heated portions thereof are in a melted state, and a bond is formed when the heat source is removed.
Thus, the finished product ballons outwardly, assuming a bulbous shape, when air is introduced into the compartment surrounded by the welded edges.
In I-beam construction, the respective edges of the separate materials are not brought together as they are in the top-to-bottom technique.
Instead, an imperforate wall member, also preferably formed of the same materials used to construct inflatables, is positioned along the seam where the top and bottom materials would come together for bonding in the top-to-bottom method. A first, or top longitudinal edge of a wall is heat welded to one of the pieces of material along a seam and the bottom longitudinal edge of the wall is bonded to the other piece of material along a seam.
Thus, the seams where a direct bonding would have occurred in the top-to-bottom welding technique are now spaced apart by the height of the wall that interconnects them.
Even when the I-beam technique is employed, some bulbosity will still be present between contiguous baffle walls, but the amount of bulbosity is inversely proportional to the number of walls, i.e., the greater thenumber of baffle walls (i.e., the closer together the baffle walls are spaced apart relative to one another), the less bulbosity in the overall item constructed.
Thus, where it is desired to provide a relatively large inflatable object that is substantially flat, the I-beam construction is used. In a large object such as a raft, a plurality of walls are spaced at equidistant intervals throughout the area where flatness or sustantial absence of bulbosity is desired.
One problem with I-beam construction is that the wall members which join the opposite pieces of inflatable materials together define separate air compartments. An outside pressure broughtto bear on a compartment may cause a rupture of the object because air is not free to escape the comparment defined at its top and bottom by the outer surfaces of the inflatable object and at its sides by imperforate walls.
If an inflatable could be constructed so as to have a flat center section and bulbous outlying portions, then a number of novel items could be constructed which would take advantage of such feature.